Everything We Know About King Charles & Queen Camilla’s Upcoming Royal Tour of Australia

According to the official press release from Buckingham Palace, the king and queen will depart on Friday, October 18, for a visit scheduled to last until October 26. They will visit Australia primarily, but the tour also includes a State Visit to Samoa where Charles will participate in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM)—his first time doing so as monarch. (The meeting is held once every other year.) The tour was first announced in July, but the dates were only recently confirmed.

Originally, Charles was set to visit New Zealand, too, but due to the strenuous nature of the trip and the distance from home, it was advised that he pace himself, which meant that leg of the royal tour had to be cut. (For reference, Charles’s last international trip was to France for D-Day commemorations in June.)

Welp, it’s pretty packed. Their schedule largely includes events in both Sydney and Canberra with a program that’s focused on sustainability and protecting the environment from climate change—a cause that’s long been front and center for Charles. Of course, the subtext of the visit is the conversations about the Commonwealth and Australia’s internal debate over whether or not it should become a republic. (The Commonwealth is currently made up of 56 countries outside the U.K. where the monarch remains head of state.)

But there will also be loads of memorable occasions and events: Charles will connect with two award-winning experts, Professors Georgina Long and Richard Scolyer, to discuss their treatment of melanoma given Australia has one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world. Charles and Camilla will also attend a community barbecue near Sydney where they’ll taste local cuisine and meet with local representatives of Australia’s cultural scene. On her own, Camilla will focus on her passion for literacy as well as local efforts that help protect women from domestic abuse. The pair will also enjoy a state reception with the Prime Minister, Mr. Anthony Albanese, and conduct a Fleet Review of the Royal Australian Navy in Sydney Harbour.

The Samoa portion of the tour will primarily focus on CHOGM, which happens once every other year and brings together delegations from all 56 countries across Africa, the Caribbean, Europe and more. Charles is head of the Commonwealth, so his attendance is important, but was also up in the air for quite some time.

Bottom line: The trip will be action-packed.

Recent reports state that Charles’s medical team has given him the go-ahead to briefly stop his weekly treatments during the long-distance tour. According to the Daily Mail, “His Majesty will continue with his ongoing cancer treatment right up until he flies, but…his doctors are happy for it to be briefly stopped while he is away.” (His treatment is set to resume upon his return, per the report.)

A sign that, health-wise, things are progressing in the right direction for the monarch? Perhaps. He has spent much of the summer and early fall with the queen by his side at Balmoral in Scotland. Camilla has also supplied regular updates about Charles’s health including a recent one in early September where she stated that he’s “doing very well.”

While the king’s schedule has been kept light in recent weeks ahead of what is set to be a strenuous tour, he did step out on October 3 for a royal reception to celebrate the Commonwealth Diaspora where he also showed off some traditional Samoan dance moves.

T minus ten-ish days until departure.